Archive for February, 2013

The list of things you can do to become successful can be long; learn about new techniques and processes, attend courses and conferences, read blogs, books and articles, collect ideas, create a network with successful people, observe successful people, set up visions and goals etc. I and many others are desperately trying to do all these things and everything at the same time. Except for work and career my life is also filled with a family, a pet, a home, friends and hobbies. I guess you already figured out where I’m heading. All things mentioned above are really great things to do if you want to become successful and you have to start doing them. There are hundreds of these lists so I don’t need to write yet another one. After doing all those things for a while it’s time to switch to another list and spend your time on other things. This is my list:

1. Stop learning new stuff.

There are always new techniques, tools, methods and processes to learn and you will never learn them in a true meaning if you don’t practice them. Pick one (1), that you think will suit you/your team/your system/your organization and try it out. If you notice that it doesn’t work for some reason, stop and switch to another. But make sure you understand and remember why it didn’t work. If it works, congratulation! You just became successful in using this new technique/tool/method/process.

There are many courses and the supply of conferences are great and most of them are very inspiring and worthwhile. The amount of blogs, books and articles are enormous. You will definitely be inspired, get new ideas and learn new stuff. But this is a never ending story. You will never be able to read everything worth reading and won’t remember all your good ideas and how to do things best. As soon as you feel inspired and have an idea of something that you would like to do… stop reading/listening and carry out your idea. Let your inspiration lift you up and give you energy when it’s fresh (it will lose its strength after a while). You will never become successful by learning and reading about stuff, you will become successful by doing stuff.

3. Stop hanging around successful people and observe what they are doing.

Successful people can definitely help you become successful. They can give you ideas, new contacts and you can see with your own eyes what successful people do. But I’m sorry, that’s not enough. You have to do the same things as successful people do. Don’t just have successful people in your network, become a part of a network of successful people! Don’t just observe successful people, do what they are doing. Sometimes this can be big and difficult changes, everything from dressing a certain way to communicating with people (both oral and body language) in a different way. This is difficult and you need to practice a lot. So pick one (1) thing you want to change and practice that until its implemented forever. When you’re done with one thing you are one step closer to be a successful person!

4. Stop creating visions and goals.

When you have one vision and one goal, stop! It’s easy to want a lot of different things at the same time but if you go for everything it will become too big and when you’re finally done with the last one, the first one will be outdated. But what perhaps is even more important is to specify what tasks you have to do to get to the goal. But hang on… you’re not there yet. To be able to meet you goal and live up to your vision you have to perform all those tasks. Roll up your sleeves and just do it! If it feels like painstaking work, don’t look at all the tasks, just take the first one and make sure that one will happen. Slowly you will take one step at a time to your success, your goal and your vision!

We are living in a world of information overflow where a career is something both men and women should aim for. At the same time life quality and family is more important than ever. I can see people around me constantly failing and working insanely hard trying to know everything and do everything, ending up being tired and miserable people. In many cases I think it’s a really good thing to spend time on fewer things and do/perform more things. You will learn more and it will sure feel good to know and see all the things you’ve done (and not everything you haven’t done yet)-

Yep, I’m not talking about everyone else here… I’m talking about myself as well. I sure have some valuable lessons to learn from myself.